NYT Book Review: "National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home" by Anya von Bremzen

[blue_dolphin]

National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Anya von Bremzen (author or co-author of multiple cookbooks) sounds like a book I'd enjoy reading. It's out next week on June 20. 

 

Here's a gift link to the NYT Book Review piece on the book: How Do Certain Foods Become National Dishes?

 

Excerpt from the linked review:

Quote

“We have a compulsion to tie food to place,” Anya von Bremzen writes in her new book... “National Dish” is the story of her quest to understand why certain foods, like pizza, ramen and tapas, are adopted as symbols of their places of origin..

The result is a fast-paced, entertaining travelogue, peppered with compact history lessons that reveal the surprising ways dishes become iconic.

Reading this book is like traveling with someone who knows the best places to eat and the right people to meet, but who can still find joy in humble, improvised meals."

 

[chromedome]

I've read a few of her books, and found them excellent and well-written. Used a couple of her recipes in cooking classes, and they turned out as they were supposed to. IMO, that's the desired combination in a cookbook writer.

[heidih]

I'd check it out from the library but don't think I'd purchase it.  The bits in the review were nothing new to me. Perhaps my negativity stems from my dislike of "best of" types of food categpries. I also think food love is so often memory and nostalgia based so when an "outsider" tries it they can wonder "why???" 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Here's a gift link to the NYT Book Review

Thanks. I am looking forward to its release. 

[blue_dolphin]

5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Thanks. I am looking forward to its release. 

 

Me, too.  I just hope the review didn't spill all the beans and there is still more to learn!